The present Invention relates to a lever switch, and more particularly, to a lever switch in which a movable contact is depressed to close or turn on a switch or recovers from the depressed state relative to a fixed contact to open or turn off the switch, by shifting a lever.
In lever switches for vehicles, a type of switch has been mainly employed in which a contact is directly closed or opened to cause the switch to be turned on or off. Also, several types of electronic lever switches requiring low current have recently been utilized, while employing several types of switching forms.
In such types of lever switches, a lever switch has been provided in which movable contacts provided on a movable substrate are shifted and are directly positioned relative to fixed contacts provided on a fixed substrate by the operation of a lever, whereby specific selected circuits only are closed. In this type of lever switch, an error in the operating angle of the lever may directly result in a malfunction in the switching operation and further may cause concern about contact failures. Therefore, in this type of switch, strict dimensional accuracy is required, thereby resulting in a high cost. Furthermore, due to the above-described mechanism, considerable stroke and clearance are required, thereby resulting in relatively large element dimensions for the switch.
Another type of lever switch may be devised wherein a contact is opened or closed, for example, by converting the horizontal movement of a lever to vertical movement of a switch device. Specifically, the vertical movement may be used to vertically depress a movable contact provided facing but apart from another fixed contact. In this type of switch, since the movable contact is only depressed and recovers from the depressed state relative to the fixed contact without changing its horizontal position, strict accuracy for the positions of the contacts or the vertical movements is not required. That is, this type of lever switch does not need such very strict accuracy as the above-described lever switch. Further, this type of lever switch may have a longer stroke than the above type of lever switch. However, since it is necessary in this type of lever switch to convert horizontal movement to vertical movement in the lever switch by the stroke of the 1ever, a presser pin provided in the movable contact should have a sloped face by which the direction conversion is carried out when the switch is pressed. Specifically, a contact actuating part provided on the lever should press against the sloped face while sliding. Accordingly, abrasion between the contact actuating part of the lever and the sloped face is easily caused, thereby resulting in poor durability. In order to improve durability of this type of lever switch, consideration would have been given to decreasing the angle of friction, which is formed between the sloped face of the movable contact and a horizontal direction. However, the more the angle of friction is decreased, the larger switching portion is required. Namely, when the angle of friction is decreased, the contact actuating part and presser pin with the sloped face, etc., should be largely manufactured.